that Teacher, and through Him He says, "It is I, be not afraid." Are you afraid of a philanthropist, the most tender in heart, the most earnest in affection, the most race-wide in sympathy? Follow Jesus of Nazareth during the three years of His public life, as He goes "about doing good." Count the diseased that He heals, the hungry that He feeds, and the disconsolate that He comforts. See Him at the grave of Lazarus, giving back from the grave the beloved brother of Mary and Martha. See Him arrest the funeral procession of Nain, and restore to the broken-hearted widow her only son. See Him on the Mount of Olives raining tears on the apprehended doom of Jerusalem. See Him in Gethsemane, suffering for others; and on the Cross, dying as a sacrifice for others; and with His dying breath, praying for His murderers. God is in that great philanthropist. Thus God in Christ removes this dread that repels the soul from His presence, and inspires the hope that attracts. He, in Christ, says to the world, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth."

II. IN HIM WE SEE A SPECIAL ATTRACTION OF MAN TO GOD. This is another step. He not only comes to man, but He

attracts man to Himself. He does this

Grati

First By awakening the highest gratitude. tude attracts, draws the soul into loving sympathy with its benefactor. Kindness is a magnet that draws the object to its author. God in Christ displays such infinite mercy as is adapted to inspire the soul with the strongest gratitude. Where is there mercy like this? He loved us and gave Himself for us. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."

Secondly: He does this by awakening the highest love. Love attracts, love draws us into the presence of its object and makes us one with it, feel as it feels, and move as it moves. God in Christ is moral beauty in its sublimest form. All conceivable virtues centre there, and radiate thence, in

infinite perfection. Holiness, as it streams directly from the Absolute One, would be too strong for our vision, would dazzle and confound us, but in Christ it comes mildly and fascinatingly, reflected through the humanities of our nature.

Thirdly: He does this by awakening the highest hope. Hope draws the heart to its object. He from whom we expect good, will often have much of our thoughts and sympathies. What good does the Eternal hold out to us in Christ? Victory over death; eternal life; a heaven of everlasting joys; HIMSELF.

Thus we are drawn to Him. We feel that "our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

The few thoughts which I have thus roughly and hastily sketched, are, I venture to hope, sufficient to show that the response of the Bible to "Man's Cry Concerning the Method of Union with God," is all that is needed, and all that can be desired. Through Christ, man may enjoy this at-one-ment with God.

A Homiletic Glance at the Acts of the Apostles.

Able expositions of the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, describing the manners, customs, and localities described by the inspired writers; also interpreting their words, and harmonizing their formal discrepancies, are, happily, not wanting amongst us. But the eduction of its WIDEST truths and highest suggestions is still a felt desideratum. To some attempt at the work we devote these pages. We gratefully avail ourselves of all exegetical helps within our reach; but to occupy our limited space with any lengthened archæological, geographical, or philological remarks, would be to miss our aim; which is not to make bare the mechanical process of the study of Scripture, but to reveal its spiritual results.

SECTION NINTH.-Acts iii. 1—11.

"Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said,

Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but suck as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God: and they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering."-Acts iii. 1-11.

SUBJECT: The Miracle at "The Beautiful Gate," a Fact, a Text, and an Epoch.

TH

CHE miracle here recorded may be said to extend in its particulars and influences to the 22nd verse of the next chapter. The whole of the passage brings the miracle under our notice in three aspects :-As a fact, a text, and an epoch. The first eleven verses of this chapter presents it to us in the first aspect, and to this aspect we now give our attention.

I. We look at this miracle as a FACT. The exquisite simplicity with which it is stated, and the minute details specified, show—as plainly as anything can show-that it has nothing of the parabolic or mythical about it. It is a fact. If there be history in any literature, these verses are a picce of history. Several things here require attention.

First The authors of the miracle. "Now Peter and John," &c. Who were the instrumental authors of the miracle? for Omnipotence was confessedly the efficient Agent. They were two of the apostles, who in mental character were the most dissimilar. John seems to have been calm, retiring, intuitional, living not so much in the scientific forms or historical details of truth, as in the transcendental region of its spiritual elements. Peter, on the other hand, was restless, forward, and somewhat dogmatic. Albeit, no two of the apostles seem more intimately allied. They were on the mount of transfiguration together, they prepared the last

passover, and were in the garden of Gethsemane together; they were together, also, at the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection, and here we find them together "going up into the temple," &c. Though John knew Peter's defects and crimes, yet he seemed so to love him as to elect him as his companion. And Peter loved him in return. Chrysostom thought that Peter's question (John xxi. 21), "Lord, what shall this man do?" was prompted, not by idle curiosity as is generally supposed, but by strong affection-an affection making him anxious concerning the future of his friend. As a rule, natural diversities of mental temperament are the conditions of the closest friendship-the one would seem to be the complement of the other. The one supplements the other's deficiency, and thus dovetails into the other. Natural diversities, where there is moral purity, are social harmony.

Secondly: The season of the miracle. "At the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." The hour of prayer, Lightfoot imforms us, is the same in the Hebrew code. The examples of David, Daniel, Peter, as well as the authority of the Talmuds, teach us that the Jews had three hours for prayer daily : the third hour, nine o'clock in the morning; the sixth, twelve o'clock; and the ninth, three o'clock in the afternoon. These disciples of Christ did not give up the temple at once, they worshipped in the temple as they were wont. Observe

Thirdly: The subject of the miracle. "And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple." In the next chapter, in the 22nd verse, we are told that he was above forty years old; upwards of forty years therefore he had lived a cripple. His lameness was not the result of accident or disease, or some infirmity that had come upon him after a period of physical perfection, but was a constitutional defect; he was born a cripple.

Thoughtful men have often asked the question, Why, under the government of a benevolent God, should such cases as this occur? Why should The Great One send men into the world, sometimes without the use of their limbs, cripples?

sometimes without the use of their eyes, blind? sometimes without the use of their reason, idiots?

Three facts may go a great way towards the obviation of the difficulty. (1) That persons who come into the world in this state, being unconscious of physical perfection, feel not their condition as others. Men who have never seen, know nothing of the blessedness of vision; men who have never had the use of their limbs, know nothing of the pleasures of healthful exercise of the limbs; men without reason, know nothing of the high delights of intellectual action. Hence persons of constitutional defect in form, organ, or limb, often display a peace of mind, and often a joy, at which others wonder. The subjects, therefore, of constitutional defects, feel not their loss as we are too prone to imagine.

Another fact which may contribute to the removal of the difficulty is-(2) Such cases of organic imperfection serve by contrast to reveal the wonderful goodness of God. In the material world, those parts of the earth that have been shattered by earthquakes, that lie in black desolation for the want of sun, that thunder in hideous chaos, serve to set off in more striking and soul-inspiring aspects the beauty and the order that reign everywhere but with such few exceptions. It is so with the human world in those cases of constitutional defects. A hunchback here, a blind man there, a cripple in another place, and an idiot there in the crowded walks of life, only serve to set off the goodness of God in the millions of men and women that are perfect. These are a few dark strokes which the Great Artist employs to set off the picture of the world in more striking aspects of beauty-a few of the rougher notes which the Great Musician uses to swell the chorus of universal order.

Another fact which contributes to the disposal of this difficulty is (3) They serve to inspire the physically perfect with gratitude to Heaven. In the poor idiot, who stares vacantly at you, God says, "Be thankful to me for the light of reason." In the poor blind man, groping his way in darkness, God says, "Be thankful to me for that eye that